Weekend's best dance bets: Emancipator, Orchard Lounge, MONO>STEREO and more

Catch Emancipator tonight at the Ogden Theatre and tomorrow night at the Aggie in Fort Collins.

Britt Chester

Welcome to weekend! Ready to get down? Good. You've come to the right place. There's plenty of dancing to be done this weekend and we've got the drop on all the best places to get your groove on and who'll be providing the soundtrack: Emancipator's at the Ogden tonight and the Aggie tomorrow night, Orchard Lounge and Human Agency are at Cervantes' tomorrow night and more. Keep reading to see what awaits you on this weekend's Dance Card.

Ten years ago, Douglas Appling -- better known in most musical circles as producer and live P.A. impresario Emancipator -- picked up some production software and started playing around. He's come a long way since then, touring and sharing stages with some of his biggest influences (Bonobo among them), and he's proven through his sweeping, Eastern-tinged trip-hop tunes that downtempo's heyday didn't end when Massive Attack went mainstream.

Emancipator's first album, Soon It Will Be Cold Enough, gained some attention in Japan, and his song "Maps" was played at the Beijing Olympics; his second effort, Safe in the Steep Cliffs, proved his ability to harness the haunting poignancy of instruments with deliberately placed effects, generating a gorgeous soundscape in which you can easily lose yourself. Emancipator will conclude his three-night Colorado run (he played last night at the Fox Theatre in Boulder) tomorrow night at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins.

Jack Beats joins Dirt Monkey and Sure Shot at Beta's Bassic Fridays series for all the dubstep-lovers in town; in the Beatport Lounge, John Templeton vs. The Missing Link vs. Sequence and Benjamin Shreves will provide tunes for underground technophiles. (18+, 9 p.m., $5-$15)

The Denver Disco kickoff party takes over the Funky Buddha tonight -- and it's the nu disco/disco house variety, not the retro oldies-radio kind. Proper Motion, Jinro and Charles B will bring the funk. (21+, 8 p.m., no cover)

Fans of downtempo and trip-hop should enjoy the selections at Cervantes' on Saturday night, as Orchard Lounge and Human Agency will be providing the tunes for some chilled-out, funked-up moments. (all ages, 8 p.m., $10-$15)

Greg Eversoul and Hipp-E bring the fall edition of MONO>STEREO to NORAD on Saturday night, so you know it's bound to be yet another fantastic weekend night at the club; special guest Seth Nichols will support. (21+, 10 p.m., $5)

Sultan & Ned Shepard will join Dragon and Tommy Michael on the decks at Beta on Saturday night, shaking the dancefloors all the way to the rafters. (18+, 9 p.m., $10)

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